World First
 | |
| Private company | |
| Industry | Financial Services |
| Founded | 21 January 2004 |
| Headquarters | Millbank, London, UK |
Key people |
Jonathan Quin (co-founder), Nick Robinson (co-founder), David Clementi (Chairman) |
| Products | Foreign exchange |
| Website | http://www.worldfirst.com/ |
World First is a UK-based foreign exchange company. It offers currency exchange and international payments to private clients, corporate and e-Commerce clients in the UK and a number of other countries.
History
World First was launched to provide a fast, fair and effortless way to help people move money across borders, with the goal of offering people a true alternative to big banks.
World First's story began in 2004 when two friends, Jonathan Quin and Nick Robinson, set up in a basement flat in Stockwell, South London, armed with the experience of 10 years in corporate banking and what Jonathan now calls ‘an entrepreneurial naivety’. Having gone about employing the right people to deliver an outstanding level of customer service, build the fastest, most reliable systems for transfers and ensure the highest levels of transparency, integrity and security, their quiet revolution to offer customers a better alternative to the banks began.
In a little over 10 years, they've grown from that south London basement into a global business with offices in London, Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney, Washington, and Austin (TX). They've expanded the range of currencies they can support and broadened their licensing footprint meaning they've been able to help tens of thousands of clients around the world. [1]
In April 2008, World First—through its subsidiary World First Markets Ltd—started to offer option and derivative hedging structures.
On 1 November 2009, World First UK Ltd was granted Authorised Payment Institution status by the Financial Services Authority. It was amongst the first round of companies to apply for and be granted this status which ensures client funds are protected from creditors.
The same year the company was registered as a Money Service Business in the UK with HM Revenue & Customs in relation to the execution of spot and forward foreign exchange transactions.
Operations
It is headquartered at Millbank Tower, London and has offices in the United States, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore. World First has private, corporate & eCommerce clients all around the world, that use them - amongst other things - for mortgage payments, repatriation of salary, international school fees, import and export. Since 2004, World First has transferred more than £60billion for more than 70,000 individuals, businesses and online sellers. It is one the fastest growing Fintech companies in Europe, with an annual growth rate of around 40%, and has offices in the UK, Asia, Australia and the US. World First's SWIFT code is WFSTGB2L.
Awards and recognition
World First has featured on the Sunday Times FastTrack 100 list of the fastest growing businesses in the UK for three years in the last four. In 2012, they won their first National Business Award for customer focus. In 2013, they won the UK Customer Experience award in the ‘financial services – banking and investment’ category, and they won the 'customer service' category at the 2013/14 European Business Awards. The company has also won the Queen's Award for Enterprise twice- in 2016[2] and 2009.
In 2015, World First was named 26th in The Sunday Times ‘International Track 200’ and listed in the Real Business’s ‘Hot 100’ fastest growing private companies in Britain for the fourth consecutive year.
In 2015, World First was first company to launch money transfer app in wearable devices, namely for Android-powered smartwatches.[3]
Notes
References
- ↑ "World First Company Timeline". worldfirst.com. 2004.
- ↑ "World First". World First Blog. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
- ↑ "World First Smartwatch App". The Money Cloud Blog. Retrieved 5 May 2016.